Overview of New Updates to the Cap-and-Invest Program

Dec 9, 2025 - How CARB decides to allocate allowances across various broad purposes —such as selling them to benefit GGRF or providing them for free to industry and/or utilities —ultimately will determine where the revenue from the charges paid by emitters will go, including which entities will receive these revenues and for what purposes.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5097

The Bay-Delta Plan and Voluntary Agreements: Ensuring Effective Legislative Oversight

Mar 18, 2026 - The Bay and Delta form one of the country ’s largest estuaries (where fresh water mixes with salt water). Its greater watershed —including the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers and their tributaries (such as the Feather, American, Mokelumne, and Tuolumne Rivers) —drains water from about 40  percent of the state ’s landmass.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5163

Assessing California’s Climate Policies—Cap-and-Trade Reauthorization

May 7, 2025 - As a result, in concept, the decision about who gets the allowances essentially determines where the revenue from the charges paid by emitters will go, including which entities will receive these revenues and for what purposes.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5042

The 2025-26 Budget: Proposition 4 Spending Plan

Feb 12, 2025 - (While potentially very valuable, requiring evaluations likely would entail some associated costs, so the Legislature will want to be similarly selective and targeted in considering where such information would be most helpful.)
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4958

The 2022-23 Budget: Cap-and-Trade Revenue Update

Apr 29, 2022 - In our January analysis, The 2022-23 Budget: Cap-and-Trade Expenditure Plan , we identified different cap-and-trade auction revenue scenarios, including a “base” revenue scenario where allowance prices remain relatively stable and a low revenue scenario where allowances prices drop to the floor.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4591

Frequently Asked Questions About Wildfires in California

Jan 28, 2025 - Response to Wildfires Can Vary Depending on Where They Start. In the case of wildfires, the disaster response approach can vary based on where the fire starts and which entity has wildfire response jurisdiction.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4952

The 2026-27 Budget: Framework for Approaching the Natural Resources, Environmental Protection, and Agriculture Budget

Feb 10, 2026 - Based on our assessment, we find evidence that a number of the Governor ’s proposals address issues where additional resources might be needed to avoid higher future costs and/or serious harm. Some examples include the following.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5116

The 2025-26 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

Jan 13, 2025 - Two key areas where these savings have eroded are in the managed care organization (MCO) tax package and reductions to state operations. These are described in the box below. The forthcoming Appendix 1 will also provide a full list of the solutions from the 2024 ‑25 budget package that generate savings in 2025 ‑26.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4951

Assessing California's Climate Policies—The 2022 Scoping Plan Update

Jan 4, 2023 - However, under a wide range of different emissions scenarios that we analyzed —including a scenario where covered emissions decline more slowly (1  percent annually) and a scenario where covered emissions decline more quickly (nearly 4  percent annually) —the state would fail to meet its statutory goal and a significant number of unused allowances would remain at the end of 2030.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4656

The 2023-24 Budget: Improving Legislative Oversight of CalFire’s Emergency Fire Protection Budget

May 1, 2023 - Furthermore, to help maximize legislative oversight, we recommend adding language specifying that this fund may not be used in cases where costs coul d reasonably be foreseen during the prior, current, or upcoming budget process.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4765